OpenGlyph — Catalogue of the American Public DomainJurisdiction: United StatesRev. 2026.08
Images / art

Two archives, queried live.

Every record below comes from The Met or Smithsonian Open Access and was filtered on that archive’s own rights field before it reached this page. 20 shown for “Monk Jie” — 48 records examined, 25 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-07 15:11 UTC · fetched live for this request

Object
Public domainThe Met’s isPublicDomain field is true for this object.
CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian’s metadata_usage.access reads CC0 — a waiver, not an expired term.
Not shownAnything failing its archive’s rights field is dropped server-side and never appears here.
Landscape, by Monk Jie

Landscape

Monk Jie · Dated 1599 (or 1659)

Public domainThe Met
The left arm of a monk and his left hand

The left arm of a monk and his left hand

Artist not stated in the record · 1850–1900

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fisherman's Lodge At Mount Xisai, by Li Jie

Fisherman's Lodge At Mount Xisai

Li Jie · ca. 1170

Public domainThe Met
Ada Monk, by José María Mora, c. 1847 - 18 Oct 1926

Ada Monk

José María Mora, c. 1847 - 18 Oct 1926 · c. 1880-85

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal with knob in the shape of a wheel

Seal with knob in the shape of a wheel

Artist not stated in the record · dated 1424

Public domainThe Met
A Praying Monk

A Praying Monk

Artist not stated in the record · 1800–1830

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Ink bamboo, by Li Shan

Ink bamboo

Li Shan · dated 1749

Public domainThe Met
Scenes from Life of San Giovanni Gualberto, by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Scenes from Life of San Giovanni Gualberto

Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605 · 1590s

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Poems on painting plum blossoms and bamboo, by Zhao Mengjian

Poems on painting plum blossoms and bamboo

Zhao Mengjian · dated 1260

Public domainThe Met
Piano bench owned and used by Thelonious Monk

Piano bench owned and used by Thelonious Monk

Artist not stated in the record · 1962

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, by Qian Gu

Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion

Qian Gu · 1560

Public domainThe Met
In St. Peter’s, Rome, by Arnold William Brunner, American, 1857–1925

In St. Peter’s, Rome

Arnold William Brunner, American, 1857–1925 · ca. 1881

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Grooms and horses, by Zhao Mengfu

Grooms and horses

Zhao Mengfu · dated 1296 and 1359

Public domainThe Met
Old Monk, by Arnold William Brunner, American, 1857–1925

Old Monk

Arnold William Brunner, American, 1857–1925 · 1883

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Cloudy Mountains, by Fang Congyi

Cloudy Mountains

Fang Congyi · ca. 1360–70

Public domainThe Met
Untitled (Study of a Standing Monk), by Ida Josephine Burgess, born Chicago, IL1855-died New York City 1934

Untitled (Study of a Standing Monk)

Ida Josephine Burgess, born Chicago, IL1855-died New York City 1934 · 1886

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Bodhisattvas and Monks, from Cave 224, by Unidentified

Bodhisattvas and Monks, from Cave 224

Unidentified · 4th-6th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Two Monks, from Cave 224, by Unidentified

Two Monks, from Cave 224

Unidentified · 4th-6th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Monk's Head, by John Chamberlaine, English, 1745 - 1812

Monk's Head

John Chamberlaine, English, 1745 - 1812 · 1796

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
The Head of an Old Monk and the Head of a Child, by Donato Creti, Italian, 1671–1749

The Head of an Old Monk and the Head of a Child

Donato Creti, Italian, 1671–1749 · ca. 1710

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
What was queried

Where these records came from.

Two archives are wired, and only two. Each one is filtered on its own rights field — never on a title match, and never on the presence of an image file.

  • The Met Collection API (Open Access)Rights field: isPublicDomain. 8 matched · 8 examined · 0 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.8 shown
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 683 matched · 40 examined · 25 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.12 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-07 15:11 UTC, during this request. A completed pass is kept for 24 hours and replayed for an identical search, which is what keeps repeated queries inside Smithsonian’s 30-requests-per-hour allowance. A pass in which either archive failed to answer is never kept — an outage must not be replayed as though it were a finding about the catalogue.

Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress are deliberately not wired. Wikimedia was confirmed, on a live query, to return CC-BY material inside the same result set as genuine public domain works, and filtering it safely has not been designed yet. loc.gov was blocked by bot detection during the source evaluation, so its rights vocabulary has never been observed — and nothing here is built on a field nobody has read.

An image file is a rights claim. It never travels without its field.